'No evidence of forced conversion in Meerut case'

Two new disclosures by the police on Friday gave a new twist to the allegations of a woman who recently charged a group of men, including a madarsa teacher, with gang rape and converting her to Islam forcibly, in Meerut district.

Briefing media about its preliminary investigation into the case that has raised communal tensions in the state, senior superintendent of police Omar Singh said, "We have found no evidence of forced conversion." However, he added, "it is still a matter of further investigation".

The police also named another person, Kaleem, in the case. Singh said Kaleem, a resident of village Uldhan of Kharkhauda area, had taken her to Medical College Hospital in Meerut on July 23 for an operation to treat complications caused by her ectopic pregnancy, a condition in which the foetus develops in fallopian tubes rather than uterus.

The woman had been discharged from the hospital on her request on July 27.

The consent letter needed for the surgery shows Kaleem and the woman as husband and wife, Singh said.

Asked about her relationship with Kaleem, the SSP said, "The matter pertains to a girl hence I can't go beyond my limit." Kaleem has been taken into custody for questioning.

Singh refused to reveal the name of the person with whom she had sexual relations.

Today's police disclosure contradicts the girl's statement alleging she had been forcibly operated upon---and also kept in confinement--- in Muzaffarnagar, the battleground of last year's bloody religious riots.

In her complaint lodged in Kharkhauda police station on August 3, the woman had charged Sarawa village pradhan Nawab Khan, Hafiz Sanaullah and two others with abduction and forced conversion. Besides Khan, the police have arrested his daughter Nishat, and Samarjahan, wife of the main accused Hafiz Sanaullah who is still at large.

She had alleged the accused took her away for four days between July 23 and 27, during which she was operated upon before being returned to her home in Sarawa, where she taught at a local madarsa.

When she went missing again on July 29, the girl's father had on August 2 lodged a complaint that village head Nawab along with five others abducted his daughter on July 23 and took her to a Madrassa where they raped and illegally confined her.

However, home secretary Kamal Saxena said that the girl was admitted to the medical college on July 23 and was operated upon the same day.

The officer also said her statement alleging she had been operated "upon by one doctor Nawab and Sanaullah was not found true".

He also confirmed the affidavit of conversion was not signed by the girl.

"It was found that three persons, Gul Sanawar, Wakeel Ahmad and Naveen prepared the affidavit of which two have been arrested," he said.

He said that regarding affidavit it has come to the light that they went to stay at a madarsa in Muzaffarnagar, but the management refused on the ground that they cannot allow a non-Muslim to stay.